On January 4, 2011, Congress enacted the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), aiming to protect the public by ensuring the U.S. food supply is safe through prevention and enforcement. The FSMA included seven foundational rules, which we summarized in our FSMA: Stay Compliant with DTL’s ‘PICTURE’! blog. Continue Reading
Food Importers – Want to Expedite Your Importations with FDA?
On January 2, 2018, FDA announced that it expects to begin accepting applications in early 2018 for its Voluntary Qualified Importer Program (VQIP), which we first advised you of back in 2015. VQIP is a voluntary, fee-based program for importers that will allow expedited review and importation of human and animal foods into the United States for approved applicants who achieve and maintain a high level of control over the safety and security of their supply chains. Below are the most important VQIP questions and answers from the FDA. Continue Reading
2018 Seminars – We Want to Hear from YOU!
DTL is Planning Our 2018 Seminars AND WANTS YOUR Input!!If you have any specific comments you want to share with us, please email us at info@diaztradelaw.com.
Help Us Celebrate 2017 Successes!
DTL saved clients MILLIONS of dollars in 2017, below we list a summary of some of our compliance successes! Let us assist you in 2018!
U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP)
- Assisted importers in filing prior disclosures that were accepted by CBP and/or DOC and avoiding substantial penalties.
- Assisted importers in successfully responding to CBP 28’s and 29’s resulting in close outs, and no further enforcement action by CBP!
- Assisted importers in creating and maintaining pre-compliance programs to evaluate intellectual property rights and pre-report merchandise to CBP resulting in expedited entry into the U.S. with no delays or examinations by CBP. Continue Reading
Your Cheat Sheet to Comply With CBP’s Forced Labor Requirements
We recently advised our readers of the 12 Questions on Forced Labor the import community must answer in order to comply with U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) amended Reasonable Care Checklist. This checklist was released September 2017 to:
- Comply with the informed compliance requirement of Title VI of the North American Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act (Pub. L. 103-182, 107 Stat. 2057) (Mod Act) and,
- Continue Reading
Recap of the CBP East Coast Trade Symposium (& Dates for 2018!)

As you know (for those of you who have been following our blog), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) held its annual East Coast Trade Symposium on December 5-6, 2017, in Atlanta, GA. Below summarizes the panels I attended, would love your thoughts if you were there. For those that couldn’t make it – hope below proves useful as a summary for you!

The event kicked off with Brenda B. Smith, CBP’s Office of Trade Executive Assistant Commissioner, introducing CBP’s trade strategy and the four important lanes CBP is focusing on:

